Quarter of final-year nursing students Vives wants to continue her studies

There are 472 nursing vacancies in West Flanders alone. Interns are usually offered a contract even before they graduate. After five years of studying, Delphine will soon have two bachelor’s degrees: Midwifery and Nursing. “I graduated and thought: now I’m just going to do it. I’m still young, will link it to it. Not while working, because then it might not happen.”

Into more depth

“It appears that 9 to 10 percent aspire to study a master’s degree and that 16 percent aspire to do another further education,” says Veerle Decocker of Vives. “The rest do not want to continue their studies at the moment, which does not rule out the possibility that they will do so later. “They most often indicate that they want to broaden their knowledge and go deeper into the subject matter.”

You can combine additional postgraduates and advanced bachelor’s degree programs with work. Students from HBO5 and graduate programs are less likely to continue their studies and are more likely to immediately start working in home care and residential care centres.